It is no surprise that Never Trumpers are speaking out against former president in the wake of the “Red Wave That Wasn’t,” but the criticism from Dr. Michael Savage — a longtime supporter of former President Donald J. Trump‘s — deserves to be looked at given the pair’s on-going mutual respect for each other that has lasted for more than a decade.
“I gotta tell you this, and many people are mad at me now. We all know what’s coming. I believe that [Florida GOP Governor Ron] DeSantis is the future of the Republican Party if they are to have a future at all,” the legendary radio host said during his opening monologue on his Thursday podcast.
The man known for coining the phrase “liberalism is a mental disorder” also pre-empted knee-jerk reactions from his audience by providing a detailed explanation of why he now feels that way.
“And let me tell you why before you jump down my throat and say, ‘Oh, you stabbed Trump in the back,” Savage said defiantly. “I care more about the country than I do about a man. I’ve said before — this is about a nation, not about any man.”
The radio host has good reason to explain his shift in perspective on the current state of affairs: Savage supported a Trump run for the presidency in 2012, 2016, and his re-election effort in 2020. To its credit, the left-wing Salon Magazine even published a reasonably balanced article in April 2016 from a Savage Nation listener, detailing why he is the “Godfather of Trumpmania.”
The simple reason for his early support is that the nationalist and populist platform that Trump ran on was nearly identical to Savage’s long-held mantra of “Borders, Language, Culture,” and so many other policy positions described by the host throughout his almost 30 years on the radio.
